Home.

We got back home late Saturday night after spending a week in Texas. First a few days in Houston to celebrate the hubby's grandma's 90th birthday, 3 days at the coast with hubby's dad, and then 2 days in Austin visiting all sorts of friends, old and new. There was a lot of activity and a lot of driving, which with two kids makes for some tired parents. The kids played with their cousins, and Finn made fast friends with Todd's best friend's son. On the coast, we saw amazing amounts of shorebirds... blue herons, ibis, egrets, spoonbills..... they were everywhere. Such majestic birds. If I had it my way, I would have sat there watching them for a long time. We also saw porpoise, rode on a motorboat, and spent an afternoon at the aquarium. And the Mexican food was amazing. So delicious! However,  after about 5 days there I realized that I had barely eaten any vegetables. Seriously. Everything was beans, cheese, tortillas, and at some places it was hard to find a vegetable on the menu, unless you count the salsa. Oh vegetables,  how I missed you.
Both of our flights were eventful, to put it nicely. On the way there, while waiting to board our second flight, Todd and I both looked down for a second (really, a literal second), and Phoebe (my runner child), was gone. Panic. Where was she? She had gotten excited and ran past the boarding line, past the woman taking boarding tickets, and onto the jet way. She was standing there crying, as she finally realized she had left her family behind. This all happened in about 20 seconds, but it felt like much longer. It turned out OK, but scary. That could have been a whole lot worse if she had run a different direction. On the second flight on the way home, Phoebe fell asleep immediately, and woke up about an hour later having a night terror. Have your kiddos ever gotten those? They are freaky and terrible and really hard to deal with, even in the comforts of your own home. And it's much worse on a plane. They scream and yell and cry, but they are not fully awake, so all you can do is help them to fall back asleep. We spent about 90 minutes with her thrashing and screaming on and off (really loudly), late at night, mind you, so everyone was trying to sleep... Anyways, we felt terrible, but everyone on the plane was so nice and sympathetic. I am so thankful for the kindness of all of those strangers.
Anyways, we are home and we survived. Finn heads back to school today and I start teaching a new term tomorrow. Back to the grind, yes?

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